They forgot to mention that all dual cameras use microscopic sensors with junky IQ. I prefer real optical zoom similar to Galaxy K Zoom, which actually produces decent results better than any of the current flagships.

Sensor size cant be increased notably more without increasing z height. Z hight is the priority, so sensors wont be bigger. Within the z-height restraint its not possible to increase aperture size notably too. The potential is already used. The remaining potential have similarities to when CPU companies meet the frequency wall. They had to increase to more then one CPU core. Dual cameras are only the beginning of a larger trend. In the coming years we will se triple, quad and more cameras. Dual focal lengths are only one way of improvement. Soon we will get HDR and 3D too, as well as interleaving frames high speed 3D, multiple focus distance, then all of this combined, small + large pixels and add monochrome sensors (R, G, B, maybe IR or W) to improve noise performance. Some polarized cameras too. Batteries and screens become thinner. Cameras will counter z-height with having more of them. In a decade maybe we have hundreds of cameras in a 2mm thin sheath on the back of the phone.

Actually I want to have a thicker phone with a proper zoom camera module a la Canon G9X. It will leave in dust all this dual camera computational junk with microscopic sensors. You can not defy laws of physics unfortunately. Current trend is a dead end.

I'll take smaller sensor with brighter lens any day because those real optical zooms make big compromise on lens speed which is very poor on the telephoto end and you will get worse quality than second dedicated module. 1/2.55'' is pushing it but still close to compact camera 1/2.3''. Of course larger would be better but with good IS you can shoot in fairly dark conditions too.

G9X will leave any phone in dust, considering there is no telephoto on any of the phones bar Galaxy K zoom or similar. 56mm on some of the phones (which they call telephoto) is not a telephoto at all, and usually with a smaller sensor the quality is complete junk, so that's why I don't want this useless second camera.

I would also want a thicker phone (up to about 2 cm) in exchange of larger sensors, but I dont want to exchenge two f/1,8 primes into a f/4-5,6 zoom. With aperture equivalency you waste the light gathering properties that a larger sensor potentially could offer. Zooms are also in general a lot less sharp then primes because of more compromizes with aberration correction.

Having two primes on dedicated sensors is like having a two step zoom, but with smaller size of optics (given same sensor size), lower price and better IQ. Sharper, less abberations and so on. In the future I would want more cameras on the phone to get more steps of focal lengths. Those images may also overlap so the resolution increases towards the center of the image.

Canon G9X has 28-85 f/2.0-4.9 zoom with 1" sensor. But would just be happy with 28-35 mm range prime with f/2.0 aperture. Panasonic CM1 comes close with 1" sensor and 28/2.8 prime. It's 20mm thick (at the lens). Canon, on the other hand is 31mm thick, which is ok with me (if they do protruding lens section, similar to CM1). But none of the current dual camera module phones has a sensor bigger than 1/2.9" for "tele" lens, which is a useless junk. If they'll give me at least 1/1.7" sensor I'd be happy.

Have you used such a camera before? They look quite good despite the small sensors. As a whole, phone cameras have evolved amazingly. They no longer look like they were taken through low resolution vaseline jars. A slow tele on the G9x is going to lose a lot of light. Cranking the ISO will catch up to even this larger sensor

Canon G9X @30.6mm f/4.9 is equivalent to 1/3" sensor 11mm f/1.8, which no phone have right now. So no, it will not lose any light. And this is 85mm equivalent, which also no phone have right now.Right now I'm using Blackberry Priv with 1/2.4" sensor and it's not even close to G9X, also used Galaxy S7 Edge, S8, S8+, and those are also not even close to G9X.

Your original beef alluded to a point and shoot sensored slow zoom Samsung. I'd rather a dual lens setup with faster apertures than that. You could duct tape your G9x to your perv phone and then you'd have your dream device.

Why would I do this? I keep it separately in my pocket. But if it was incorporated into a phone, I wouldn't need to carry it. Panasonic Cm1 was pretty good, carried for a year, Galaxy K zoom was also fantastic. Both of them are abandoned by their respective manufacturers. Samsung is at Android version 4.4.2 and Panasonic is at 5.0.2. No updated for a long time.Another solution is Moto Z(2) + Hassleblad True Zoom. But it's not better than Galaxy K zoom. Well, at least the phone part can be updated.

The DPR article and "white paper" are missing aSpecification that would make the discussion moreuseful. What is the "35mm equivalent focal length"of these lenses? As I understand it the iPhonemain camera is about 30mm. Not sure about otherphones. This explains why phone portraits usuallyfeature big noses! 85-105mm is considered "ideal" for portraits. The dual lens iPhone 7 is About 30 and 50mm I think, which is anImprovement but still a long way from ideal forportraits.Larry BPortland OriPhone 6, Panasonic ZS 25 & ZS 70

You might be a techy nut (emphasis on "nut"), but true optical glass will always out-resolve electronic attempts to match...So yeah...I'll go with the "real optical telephoto", not the software enhancement you enjoy...

Webber15 is right. Telephoto resoltion is an area where the physical limitations dont have even a theoretical way forward. Sure folded optics will help some but focal lenght and diffraction limitation cant be solved without growing out of accepted physical sizes for a phone.

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